Report of the Supreme Knight 2009

Charity

Earlier this summer, Pope Benedict XVI issued the third encyclical of his papacy, entitled Charity in Truth. For the Knights of Columbus, whose first principle is charity, the very title of the encyclical is an affirmation that his priorities are our priorities. In fact, the words “charity,” “unity” and “fraternity” are used so often in this new encyclical that one would almost conclude that it was written for us.

The Holy Father is very clear: “Charity,” he says, “is at the heart of the Church’s social doctrine.” And “For the Church, instructed by the Gospel, charity is everything.”

Despite the severe recession of the past year, the dedication of the Knights of Columbus to charity shone brighter than ever. Again this year, we set new all-time records for charity. While total charitable giving in the United States fell by 2% last year, our total charitable contributions went up by 3.5%. Knights of Columbus donations to charity last year climbed by a spectacular $5.1 million, to more than $150 million.

Our members also donated 68,783,653 hours of volunteer service, a jump of almost 88,000 hours over last year, and a new record. Independent Sector, a foundation that encourages charitable giving, estimates that the value of a volunteer hour in 2008 was $20.25. That would put the total value of our volunteer efforts last year at $1.39 billion!

Recipients of “KC Coats for Kids” in Washington, D.C.

Over the past decade, we have donated more than $1.325 billion to charity, and have given nearly 626 million hours of our time to charitable service, with a value of more than $11 billion.

Once again this year, Canadian Knights won top honors for total donations to charity. The Knights of Ontario took over first place, giving more than $9.1 million to charity. They were followed by Québec, with $8.5 million; Texas with $6.6 million; Illinois with $6.4 million; and Michigan at number 5, with $5.7 million. Rounding out the top ten jurisdictions were Florida, California, New Jersey, Virginia and Missouri.

Looking at per capita donations to charity, Canadian jurisdictions once again dominated the list of top donors. British Columbia led the way, with a per capita total of $213.95 donated per member. Ontario was second, with $160.87 per member.

A total of 14 jurisdictions had per capita donations of more than $100 per member. Nine of the 14 were Canadian jurisdictions, and the remaining five were in the United States Virginia had the highest U.S. per capita donation total, at $151.76 per member. The compassion of Knights of Columbus is never more clear than when we help those who are suffering from disease and injury. Last year, we were responsible for more than 413,000 blood donations, and our members made more than 5.5 million visits to the sick and bereaved.

A significant portion of our volunteer activity is conducted in conjunction with well-known charities. Knights volunteered more than 1.3 million hours in Habitat for Humanity projects last year.

Special Olympics is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2009, and we helped them celebrate by donating $1 million over the next four years to support their activities in the United States, Canada and Mexico. During the past fraternal year, Knights donated 177,651 hours of their time to Special Olympics events, and $2,216,000 in financial support.

The Knights of Columbus has been providing both financial and volunteer support for Special Olympics ever since it was established in 1969 by our brother Knight Sargent Shriver and his wife Eunice Kennedy Shriver, and we have also been a major contributor to many other programs for people with physical and mental disabilities.

A more recent partner in our charitable work is now known as the American Wheelchair Mission. Since 2002, the Knights of Columbus has sponsored the distribution of 15,000 wheelchairs to people in need all around the globe, and many individual jurisdictions have taken an active role. A total of 38 states have participated in our wheelchair program, led by California, which has raised $538,000 for distributions throughout Central and South America. California Knights delivered 560 wheelchairs to Campeche and Guadalajara in Mexico in June, and Knights in Texas will be making a distribution in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, in October.

Knights in every province in Canada have donated wheelchairs. Major contributors in the U.S., in addition to California and Texas, include Arizona, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Georgia, Tennessee, New Jersey and Florida. Recently, the Knights of Mexico Central became the first Mexican jurisdiction to participate in the program, raising money for wheelchairs that will be distributed to physically disabled people in Mexico.

The weather here in Phoenix in August is always a bit warm, and of course this week is no exception. But last January, in many cities farther north, the weather was very cold indeed. And in the midst of a severe recession, we knew that there would be many children from lower-income families who either didn’t have a winter coat or had outgrown last year’s coat, and wouldn’t be getting a new one this year.

We decided to partner with several major clothing manufacturers and obtained a supply of nearly 8,000 children’s coats at or near cost. Our KC Coats for Kids program was off and running. We distributed the first 1,200 coats in Washington, D.C., on Martin Luther King Day, Jan. 19, which the president had designated as a National Day of Service. Thousands more were distributed in the weeks that followed, by Knights in Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis and Duluth.

Our 2009 Coats for Kids program was a modest beginning for a program that we intend to grow into a significant charitable effort to benefit children in need.